Today in History

French forces unofficially start the Persian Gulf ground war by crossing the Saudi-Iraqi border.

Black activist Angela Davis is released from jail where she was held for kidnapping , conspiracy and murder.

American troops begin the largest offensive of the war, near the Cambodian border.

The U.S. and Britain recognize the new Zanzibar government.

Whites join Negro students in a sit-in at a Winston-Salem, N.C. Woolworth store.

Eight nations meet in Bangkok for the first SEATO council.

Mass innoculation begins as Salk’s polio vaccine is given to children for first time.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum exhibits a collection of Hapsburg art. The first showing of this collection in the U.S.

Several hundred Nazi organizers are arrested in Frankfurt by U.S. and British forces.

Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita is hanged in Manila, the Philippines, for war crimes.

U.S. Marines plant an American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.

American bombers strike the Marianas Islands bases, only 1,300 miles from Tokyo.

A Japanese submarine shells an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, the first Axis bombs to hit American soil.

Twelve Chinese fighter planes drop bombs on Japan.